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Synonyms
bench·mark (bĕnch́märḱ)

[From the use of the mark as a place to insert an angle iron that serves as a support for a leveling rod.]

noun 

  1. A standard by which something can be measured or judged: “Inflation . . . is a great distorter of seemingly fixed economic ideas and benchmarks” (Benjamin M. Friedman) See synonyms at standard
  2. A surveyor's mark made on a stationary object of previously determined position and elevation and used as a reference point in tidal observations and surveys.

transitive verb: -marked, -mark·ing, -marks. 

To measure (a rival's product) according to specified standards in order to compare it with and improve one's own product.